Rail to Logan?

North Carolina (barring Charlotte) lacks rail transit. But they do have state sponsored Amtrak, the Piedmont service. Makes me reflect on commuter rail and passenger rail. In Europe, the two represent a continuum rather than a dichotomy. Inter-regional passenger trains and commuter trains share the same track, just at different frequencies.

Utah has FrontRunner, running from Provo to Ogden. And it faces regular calls to extend FrontRunner, even unto Logan (Utah's other Metro region). Efforts to extend FrontRunner north haven't really worked out--simply not enough demand. But there might be enough demand for something less than the hourly commuter rail frequency, but something more like state sponsored Amtrak. There is an existing rail line between Ogden and Logan, it is very indirect, running an S-curve around the mountains.There is also an existing highway (HWY-91) that runs directly between Brigham City and Logan. So it would be very difficult for the train to compete with driving.But there might be a demand for passenger service regardless, for the non-driving population--Logan is home to Utah State University, with 27,000 students.

That said, that said, if it will be feasible for rail, it should be feasible for Commuter Express Buses.  And if it’s worth $100m in rail investment, it’s worth $100m of asphalt investment in dedicated lanes. (No implication that 100% of the lane need to be dedicated--just the most congested section). 

Boulder Mountain Highway for Tooele

More and more I am hearing about people commuting from Tooele to downtown SLC and the University of Utah. Housing in Tooele is cheap, because the accessibility to jobs is poor. But transport costs are high, as people are driving long distances. Those long distances are being driven by older cars. (As lower-income HH can't afford new cars). That generates a lot of air pollution.

To me, this calls for an Express Bus from Strasbury to the University of Utah, stopping by downtown along the way. (Perhaps at the State and 200 S. Bus Hub...). Nevada has one from an outlying community to the strip, that is well liked. It costs $5 to ride, but that's comparable to the cost of gas for the trip. (Gas was more expensive, then). Still, 25 miles at 25 miles/gallon is a gallon of gas each way. @ about $2.40/gallon, gas alone would not do it.

Surveys and empirical evidence suggest that most people spend 15% of their budget on transport. (Transit dependent populations spend less, something in the neighborhood of 4%, because it's hard to spend that much money on transit. A ticket is a ticket. Two tickets a day or 4 tickets a day is the near-max*).

Do rider-collection near freeways, using a Park and Ride lot, and then the bus--call it an 'Inter-Urban', as it provides access between towns, rather than within them--takes people to SLC CBD and the University.

UTA likely already has something like this, but it's likely sub-optimal. More capital investment would make it better, but 'flexibility' is assumed to be a necessary virtue of all buses; being unable to change a route at the drop of a hat seems terrible. (Nevermind that same flaw is considered a virtue for trains).

*Makes me wonder if there isn't a market for premium transit, costing slightly more than the regular transit, and offering slightly better service. Or double the price for 150% of service (2/3 the travel time).